One of my good friends, Baba Yaga, a witch of Slavic folklore, is fond of saying to people as a means of farewell, "Don't get crushed by the existential dread!"
I've been saying this to myself a lot lately.
In the midst of personal crises (helping my mom as she faces a severe injury, and now self-quarantining with a head cold until I can get the results of my Covid test back*) and nationwide nonsense, I find it hard to feel like anything I do matters. I started a blog post on plastic-free swaps and ended up rage-quitting because the change needs to be so, so much bigger, and the amount of effort put into little tiny swaps for little tiny plastic pieces feels so wasted.
I will return to the blog post one of these days. I'm still cataloguing my plastic. I'm still encouraging others to be mindful of your trash and try to figure out what it's telling you and where you want to head with your eco action. Some days the dread just feels heavier than others. I remind myself that there's nothing wrong with self-care, especially when that manifests as curling up with a library book and a cup of herbal tea that I harvested straight from the garden.
To do more, I must rest more. Existential dread or not.
*Update: I just heard back and my test was negative! I'm just regular sick!
*Update: I just heard back and my test was negative! I'm just regular sick!
 |
| #mood |
Below is a list of my trash, but first, some quick links…
• 10 Ways to Turn Off the Corporate Plastic Pollution Spigot by Zero Waste Chef. Helpful knowledge, petitions to sign, action ideas to effect larger-scale change, and more!
• How to NOT Go Zero Waste by Sustainable in the Suburbs. Really good (I mean bad) advice for getting started on your journey.
• 10 High-Impact Zero Waste Challenge Ideas by Polly Barks. These challenges encourage you to choose the action steps that will create the biggest impact.
• If we want a future in which everyone (regardless of income) has access to good, healthy, nourishing food, we need to invest in farmers who are looking not only to heal the soil but heal their communities. Three incredible farmers are currently fundraising, and every dollar counts. Check out Indy Srinath (L.A.), Amber Tamm Canty (New York) and Sylvanaqua Farms (Virginia).
Now, onto the trash!
Parchment paper (trash)— Perhaps I will buy biodegradable parchment paper in the future when I am not under active quarantine. What a strange, distant future this is. What is the future? What is the past? What is reality? At least I have bread.
Dried fruit bag (recycle at store)— This is clean and dry, so I can add it to bag recycling to take to the grocery store. You can normally buy dried fruit in bulk, if you live in a mythical world where there is either no pandemic or you're allowed to bring your own container and also probably if you live on the west coast or something. Maybe I should dry my own fruit instead, from the farmers market. Honestly. I have a dehydrator. It wouldn't be that hard.
Peanut butter seal (recycle at store)— Organic peanut butter comes in tiny jars and we eat a lot!
Sausage wrapping (trash)— Support your local farmer!
Plastic bag (recycle at store)
Tortilla seals (recycle at store)
Tortilla chip bag (trash)— I fell behind on making Zach's snacks this week, so he filled in the cracks with a bag of chips and a jar of salsa. I may or may not have sneaked several chips as well.
Floss (trash)— I might possibly maybe order some silk floss sometime in the undetermined future.
Receipts (trash)
Tofu packaging (recycle at store once cleaned)— I have made tofu from scratch before, but so far I've had no luck finding bulk soybeans in the Midwest! Why is this? I can bike five minutes from my house and see soybean fields with no end in sight, and yet I haven't found a store here that carries the actual beans! #governmentconspiracy #noactuallyitis
Half-and-half carton (recycle)— I learned that our city does accept these kinds of cartons for recycling! Not everywhere does, though, so be sure to check your regulations.
Butter wrappers (trash)— For the aforementioned bread.
Packing tape (trash)— This was the lone piece of plastic on a 48-roll pack of Who Gives a Crap toilet paper. So I'd say that's pretty good.
Cheese wrapper (trash)— So many quesadillas.
~~~
Updated goals for this month:
1. Don't get Covid. *(Update: Managed to meet this goal better than I expected!)
2. Get well from the cold.
3. Use points 1 and 2 to be able to actually visit my injured mother again.
4. Figure out where to buy silk floss.
5. Write one blog post (it's currently half-finished after I rage-quit).
6. Make a list of zero-waste swaps and resources to research later when I'm not so physically and emotionally exhausted.
7. Write one email asking a brand to take responsibility for its plastic packaging.
8. Eat more bread.
~~~
Want to support my work? You can send a few bucks via my Ko-Fi page, or check out my illustration work for sale on Zazzle. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment